Tell Me Your Troubles
by Abydosorphan
Summary: Written for the Sam Carter round of sg femslash for dangerusliasons who wanted Sam/Kate "tell me your troubles". Major thanks to havocthecat and gaildelaney for the beta jobs.
Sam sat in her office sipping at her coffee. She hadn't been at this position long, but she had learned a thing or two about being stationed in the Pegasus Galaxy.

One, was that even though travel between Atlantis and Earth wasn't the impossibility it was once believed to be, you wanted to keep some of the finer 'delicacies' (chocolate, real coffee, and good liquor) in good supply.

The second being that if and when you did run out, the person to see was Kate Heightmeyer. Afterall, what good was a psychologist if she didn't have the better tools of the trade?

It was no surprise to Carter that MacKenzie had always sucked at it. But in his defense, maybe you needed to be a little distanced from the brass in order to run a good ship in that regard.

"So, are you going to tell me what had you so upset that you almost took Rodney's head off?" Kate asked, peering over the brim of her own cup.

"Isn't Rodney, being Rodney reason enough?"

"For most people, yes. For you, no." Kate paused to set her cup down on the corner of Sam's desk. "You generally have a certain flair for handling him. You're far better at it than Colonel Sheppard, or even Dr. Weir, ever was." Leaning forward, the woman took on a pensive expression, one that Sam was certain could only mean trouble. "Of course it could be the fact that he is completely and totally hung up on you that nudges the odds in your favor."

Sam rolled her eyes, trying to get used to the teasing and not be disgusted by it. "Revealing a bit of doctor/patient confidentiality there, Ms. Heightmeyer?"

"Oh, please, heavens no." Kate lifted her cup to her lips and took a careful sip, her lips quirking up in a barely suppressed smile. "You don't seriously think there is a person on this station that doesn't know he has a total crush on you, do you? Besides, Rodney would never talk about something like that in a session, and if it did come up somehow he would deny it wholeheartedly."

"True. Rodney does do the denial thing, albeit badly." Sam stared out the window, contemplating her situation and the world around her. "Guess it would only make things worse if I told him he had no chance in hell since I'm quite happy with women, huh?"

A very unladylike snort came from Kate's direction and Sam's eyes widened.

"He would want to watch. And you'd never get away with talking to another woman on base without him asking questions about whether or not she 'did it for you'. He would take your comfort with informing him as free rein to bring it up every chance he got."

"I'd never get to have a decent female conversation again."

"You'd never get to have any conversation ever again."

"And we could forget about our little meetings for coffee, or chocolate, or wine, I guess."

"Yes, the grapevine would have us having wild sex on your desk." Taking another quick sip, Kate smiled. "Or the couch in my office."

Sam got up from her chair and walked over to the window. The rain was falling outside, the weather around Atlantis seeming to reflect her mood. Kate's arm came around her waist, her head leaning lightly against Sam's arm. "So, are you going to tell me what he did?"

Sam smiled, a blush tinting her cheeks. "He took the last bowl of blue jello." She tried not to laugh as she said it, but it had really annoyed her at the time.

"Noted. I'll never touch the blue jello again."

Sam shrugged. "It wouldn't have been so bad if you had taken the last bowl. But he had already beat me to the last cup of real coffee down in the labs, and the last piece of chocolate cake in the mess hall. The jello was just the final straw. And then he kept asking for things."

"He does have a habit of doing that." Kate smiled as she reached across Sam's body to pluck the coffee cup from her hand and steal a sip.

"Hey!"

"Relax. There's more."

"Good. Though maybe we should save that for tomorrow. We could have wine tonight."

"Samantha Carter, I'll have no reserve supply left if I keep giving in to your whims."

Sam snatched her coffee cup back and finished the last sip as she turned to look in at her office. "So, the desk, huh? I always thought the edges would be rough on your skin."

Kate smiled, examining the furniture for herself. "You're probably right. The couch in my office is a much better option."


End file.
